[Reposted; The Thinking Housewife, 2022] I ONCE interviewed a widow who lived on a traffic island. I was a newspaper reporter in New Jersey and did a feature story about her.

Her plight was comical and absurd, but also inspiring.

Over the years, commercial development had isolated her modest, Cape Cod-style house. Strip malls had sprung up around her and new lanes were added to the highway. A river of ferocious, non-stop traffic rushed past her house. She refused, however, to abandon the property.

So she lived on a median strip.

Northbound traffic passed her front door and southbound traffic passed her back door.

The interesting thing was that she continued to shower attention on her home, which included a few shade trees and a small garden. It could have been a cottage in the country overlooking hills and meadows for all the affection she expended on it. Geraniums and impatiens grew in the garden. Homemade curtains adorned the windows and an artificial floral wreath hung on the front door. Feminine knick knacks decorated the shelves.

Since then, I’ve seen other homes like hers, though not in as extreme a situation. They are islands of civility. They affirm the truism that you can truly make a home anywhere if you really want to, though it may cost you many compromises and much hard work.

Expensive homes sometimes are much less homey than these oases in forlorn neighborhoods. Those who bring life and modest beauty to a depressing area perform acts of charity as well as work for their own pleasure and comfort.

Most importantly, they are exercising the virtue of hope. (more…)

"THAT kingdom of God which is within us, consists in our willing whatever God wills, always, in everything, and without reservation; and thus His kingdom comes; for His will is then done as it is in Heaven, since we will nothing but what is dictated by His sovereign pleasure. We will whatever He wills; what He does not will, we do not; we attach our feeble wills to that all-powerful one that regulates everything. Thus nothing can ever come to pass against our wishes; for nothing can happen contrary to the will of God, and we find in His good pleasure an inexhaustible source of peace and consolation. There are no longer any evils; for even the most terrible that come upon us, work together for good, as St. Paul says, to those that love God. (Rom. viii. 28.)" --- Archbishop François Fénelon (1715)    

"FOR what are words but words? They fly through the air, but they bruise no stone. And wherefore do such trivial matters go to thine heart, except that thou art yet carnal, and regardest men more than thou oughtest?" --- Thomas a Kempis  

"Q: Is it not so that, surely, in the United States, constituted as it is on democracy, the wealth of this country has always been more widespread among its people than is the case in other countries? "A: The disproportion is even more blatant in the United States, where it is calculated that in 1892 there were in existence 31,850 individuals who together possessed 191 billions, which is to say three fifths of the national fortune at that time." --- Americanism and the Anti-Christian Conspiracy, Msgr. Henri Delassus  

"THE revolutions of the year, and the dispositions of the stars, The natures of living creatures, and rage of wild beasts, the force of winds, and reasonings of men, the diversities of plants, and the virtues of roots. "And all such things as are hid and not foreseen, I have learned: for wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me. "For in her is the spirit of understanding: holy, one, manifold, subtile, eloquent, active, undefiled, sure, sweet, loving that which is good, quick, which nothing hindereth, beneficent, "Gentle, kind, steadfast, assured, secure, having all power, overseeing all things, and containing all spirits, intelligible, pure, subtile. "For wisdom is more active than all active things: and reacheth everywhere by reason of her purity. "For she is a vapour of the power of God, and a certain pure emanation of the glory of the almighty God: and therefore no defiled thing cometh into her." --- Wisdom, 7:19-25  

ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES — Trump Posts on 𝕏 (@trump_repost) June 24, 2025 Image Credit  

 “THE faith of our fathers never ignored the great benefits for which both individuals and nations are indebted to Saint John. So many neophytes received his name in baptism, so efficacious was the aid afforded by him in conducting his clients to sanctity, that there is not a day in the Calendar, on which there may not be honoured the heavenly birthday of one or other so named (Annus Johannis, auctore Johanne N. [Pragae, 1664]).

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“THE question What can we do? has many answers. and whoever gives an answer may do so according to his knowledge, his capacity, and his station (there are many, indeed, who give answer beyond all these). But one answer, at least, is possible to the humblest: To bear witness. It is the duty of all who can do so, whether in print, in their letters, or in talk, to withstand or rectify, in however restricted a manner, the cumulative falsification of history perpetrated by the principal media of publicity in our time...” --- F. A. Voight, in Nineteenth Century and After, quoted here  

"HE that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that considereth the clouds shall never reap. "As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones are joined together in the womb of her that is with child; so thou knowest not the works of God, who is the maker of all." --- Ecclesiastes, 11:4-5  

ALAN writes:

I enjoyed a good laugh recently when I discovered Walter Henry Nelson’s book The Londoners: Life in a Civilized City (Random House, 1974). It is not a comical book. What provoked my amusement was not the book itself but the unexpected discovery of a book with such a title, knowing as I do the character of London when he wrote about it and the character of London today.

It is a “supremely civil city,” he wrote; “…the pace, the color and the charm of London life help one to relax. …in London, it is courtesy which moderates the harsh character of city life. …the discovery of politeness in London was a positive joy; we found it exists all around one. ….neither the temper nor the tempo of the city seems to alter much.  …the nonwhite population of Britain is very small indeed….”. (pp. 14, 17, 19, 22, 25, 27)

I visited London in 1971 but did not discover his book until this year. I found that all he wrote about London –as it was then– was true.  During my two weeks there in 1971, it was a pleasure to deal with the English people, who were invariably civil, courteous, thoughtful, and unmistakably British. (more…)

  

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"THE sun is clearly reflected in pure and clear water, but not in dirty water. So it is with men: a man of blameless life easily finds his way to the truth, but the sensual man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14). A mirror that is dim reflects badly, or not at all. So the soul, which is a mirror on which the light falls from God, cannot receive the truths of faith if it is dimmed by vice." --- The Catechism Explained, Rev. Francis Spirago (Ed. Richard Clarke, S.J., 1890)  

"THERE is no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing and lying and killing and theft and adultery have overflowed." -- Osee 4:2-3